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Friday, August 31, 2012

Would you like to stuff your e-reader with exciting quality reads? Are you browsing the net in search of new titles and great prices? Heads up! Incredible deals will be available at all major eBook retailers beginning October 1st. Take a look...

ONLY UNTIL SEPTEMBER 3

STAY AT HOME DEAD by Jeffrey Allen (Kensington, January 2012)

Available for a discounted download of $ 2.99 only until September 3!!! Grab it at all major eBook retailers.

BEGINNING OCTOBER 1

HOWL FOR IT by Shelly Laurenston and Cynthia Eden (Brava, August 21012)This title will be included in a Bundle withAngel of Darkness and The Mane Event at all major eBook retailers for $ 26.99 . Highly recommended!

HOW TO DRIVE A DRAGON CRAZY by G.A. Aiken (Zebra, September 2012)This title will be included in a bundle with The Dragon Who Loved Me, What A Dragon Should Know, and Last Dragon Standing at all major eBook retailers for $ 20.99 . Love these dragons!

BORN TO BITE by Hannah Howell, Diana Cosby, Erica Ridley (Kensington, August 2012)This title will be included in a bundle with Highland Hunger, Yours For Eternity, and Highland Beast at all major eBook retailers for $ 27.99 . Hot deal...in every sense.Stay tuned for more reviews, great deals alerts, and giveaways!

Goodreads BlurbThey hunger for your
pleasure. They growl for your touch. And in these sizzling stories by
New York Times bestselling author Shelly Laurenston and Cynthia Eden,
these sexy wolf shapeshifters are lust at first bite. . .

"Like A Wolf With A Bone" by Shelly LaurenstonQuiet
little Darla Lewis couldn't be happier when the most-feared member of
the South's rowdiest pack kidnaps her. A girl gets real tired of being
overprotected by her own shifter family, and there's nothing like an
oh-so-big bad wolf to start a pack feud, unleash her instincts--and have
her surrender however and whenever she wants. . .

"Wed Or Dead" by Cynthia EdenGage
Ryder knew his human bride had a wild side. But spending their
honeymoon night on the run from hunters out to finish him and his pack
is sure not the kind of fun he was looking forward to. No problem--Gage
will do whatever it takes to lay bare Kayla's secrets and find the
truth. If he can keep from being captured by his own seductive game. . .

I've recently had the pleasure to read and review paranormal romance novel ANGEL BETRAYED, installment #2 in The Fallen series by Cynthia Eden (see my review here), and that was the beginning of a "book love affair" with this author and her seductive angels. Now, Cynthia has co-authored with Shelly Laurenston a sizzling anthology featuring some of my favorite shapeshifters: werewolves!

HOWL FOR IT hit bookstores and all major eBook retailers two days ago. Early reviews are simply raving about it... I was almost blinded by all the shining stars I saw on Goodreads ratings! Definitely in my to-read list!!!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Ava Garrison is a fractured and grieving
woman. It’s been two years since her two year old son Noah mysteriously vanished
from her house on Church Island, off the Washington coast. With no ransom ever requested and no corpse
ever found, police investigations had ended in a blind alley of volatile clues without offering any hope of
closure, the kidnapping lead abandoned in favor of a most certain accidental death. Almost likely the little boy had wandered off
the house, reached the docks and found his death in the cold waters. The loss and lack of closure had apparently been too much to handle, even for a once self-driven, successful and ruthless
business woman like Ava. What’s left of that dynamo of business savvy and sex-appeal
is a woman tormented by guilt, pills-induced
hallucinations, and a huge mental/emotional block that is preventing her from
discerning dreams and blurred memories from reality. The collusive and secretive attitude of her very husband,
family members and household staff, will trap her in a state of unknowing and
unmistakable feeling of being framed in an artfully orchestrated conspiracy to
send her back in a mental institution.

After spending some time in a
hospital under psychiatric ward, Ava returns to her estate only to find that
her world is crumbling down. Her
ancestral home, once her safe haven, now feels like a gloomy prison, her family
members act more like enemies than supporters, her husband is more and more
disconnected, fueling her suspicions that her already languishing marriage is just heading
toward a bitter divorce. Heavily medicated and monitored at home by a
psychiatrist hired by her husband, Ava experienceshuge memory gaps and recurrent nightmares about that night when
her son went missing: she doesn’t clearly recollect the circumstances of her
son’s disappearance and, despite the telling scars on her wrists, she doesn’t
even remember ever attempting suicide. Her dreams are so vivid that they start
blending with her unfocused perception of reality, a perception made even more distorted
by the use of medications. When she
decides to interrupther psychiatric therapy and she wisely stops using tranquilizers
and anti-depressants, her mind breaks
through the fog and gets a hold of a thread that will lead her (through
unimaginable twist-and-turns and unfathomable discoveries about her family and
friends) to the truth about her son’s disappearance. Help will come from Austin
Dern, a mysterious handyman hired by her husband to take care of the estate , a
complete stranger but ironically the only person on the island Ava can really
trust.

In this intense, pulse-racing suspense novel, prolific author Lisa
Jackson had me at the prologue. The initial pages are emotionally charged and really
set the tone for the entire book: the heart-wrenching description of Ava’s “deep
seated and painful grief”, her feelings of helplessness and guilt, in addition
to the anguished replaying of that terrible tragedy in her nightmares, pierced
through my heart and immediately propelled me in Ava’s personal hell. I am a
mother and I can easily relate to her emotional trial. What I found endearing
about this character is also the way her traumatic experience redefines her
personality without crashing her headstrong core and unyielding hope. The
tragedy stirs Ava’s life from a
torturing pattern of self-doubt to a path of clarity and disambiguation, where
several veils will drop on the real substance of her family and friendship relations.

Lisa Jackson’s descriptive style
gives true dimension to every scene: you
will always have a clear and seamless sense of space and time. The narration is
richly textured and pleasantly complex: switching now and then on a double chronological time line, between the
present path to recovery and the flashbacks from the past, the
author’s use of interior monologues and
introspective point of view for some of the main characters provide the reader
with a front seat view in Ava’s and Dern’s emotional worlds, without spoiling the mystery factor and the
suspenseful effect. Well into the second
half of the book, in fact, not only Dern’s true identity and real mission at Ava’s estate
are still shrouded in a mystery as thick as the fogs enveloping Church Island; I
am so knee-deep in this gripping plot ofdeception that I cannot even start to fathom where the truth
about Ava’s son disappearance is buried. Duplicity at every turn of the page! You
Don’t Want To Know clever plot is far from predictable. It actually twisted and
turned so many times it blew me away despite all my guessing and theorizing.
The rich cast of characters is complex
and fully nuanced: extravagant, creepy, ambiguous, enigmatic, ghastly,
hypocrite, scheming, are the adjectives
that can better describe the humanity crowding Ava’s estate : ”The whole island
was something out of a Hitchcock novel”, a real nest of vipers.

This heart-stopping mystery is laced with a tenuous
romance, but doesn’t lack the intensity and the heart-warming emotions typical
of a romantic suspense novel. I would highly recommend it to a wide range of
readers, from those who love a good straight psychological thriller to those
who always appreciate a touch of
romance.

You Don’t Want To Know was my
first Lisa Jackson’s novel and certainly not the last. I would like to thank
the publisher for offering a complimentary copy in exchange of a honest review.

Congratulations Lindsey! Check your email. To all the other contestants, thank you for participating. You haven't won this time, but keep stopping by the blog with your comments for more exciting giveaways.

" When Zack meets his
second-grade teacher, Miss Smith, he can tell right away that her class
will be different. However, he has no idea just how different it will
be. Full color.

In this latest picture book by Michael Garland,
action-packed artwork showcases a tale of high adventure inspired by the
magic of reading and one spectacular teacher. Zack can't wait for Mrs.
Smith to read out loud again from her incredible book. The first story
fills the classroom with dueling pirates and the sound of their clashing
swords. The second story transports Zack's class to the shady forest of
the Big Bad Wolf. At the end of each spellbinding tale the characters
slip quietly back into the book. But one day Mrs. Smith is late for
school, and the principal takes charge. When he runs away in terror from
a fire-breathing dragon, Zack and his classmates set free the rest of
the story-book characters and have a morning of high-spirited
fun...until they notice that the pirates have hoisted their Jolly Roger
on the roof of the school."

Review

Not even an eight years old boy like my son, who would normally find any
possible excuse to avoid his daily reading practice, could resist the
lure of this action packed, fast paced, cleverly plotted children's
book. The references to the most popular fairy tales and the spectacular
illustrations enhance its captivating qualities. The artwork really
deserves a 5 plus. I highly recommend the whole series: clever and
beautifully illustrated.

“She’d traded her wings for a
life with her Fallen. Heaven, hell…everything in between didn’t matter.
Paradise was staring right back at her. (…) Dangerous, dark…yes, please. She
didn’t want some kind of white knight. She wanted her lover with the wildness
in his eyes and danger at his back.”

Sammael is a Fallen angel: he
used to be a Death angel, but when he got tired of standing by as a silent witness
of violence with the sole purpose of claiming the souls of the dying sinners , he
decided to take the matter in his own hands and deliver the ultimate punishment
to a band of brutal murderers.For his act
of arrogance and lack of repentance, Sam (Sammael’s name on earth) gets
expelled from heaven and plunged into the humans' world.

Sam’s insubordination to the higher
ranks of the angels hierarchy fuels the wrath of Rogziel, the Punishment angel.
Blinded by his anger, Rogziel wants to seethe Fallen angel burning in hell and at this purpose he decides to
leverage on Sam’s biggest weakness to ensnare him in a traphe won’t be able to escape: a woman. The enchanting and
seductive Seline works as a dancerin
one of the night clubs Sam owns in New Orleans. She is a half-breed succubus, a demon-lover
Rogziel has raised since her parents’ death and used for his dark agenda of
personal vengeance. What Rogziel doesn’tconsider is that Seline’s psychic power is
much higher than he thought and that his trap will trigger a powerful chemistry
between the succubus and the Fallen angel.

Good Heavens, Hell’s bells and “everything
in between”! This paranormal romance novel, installment#2 of The Fallen series by RITA®
finalist and national best-selling author Cynthia Eden, was a remarkable roller-coaster
of events and emotions.

I read the first part of the book
with askeptical eye because of the complexity
of the characters and the lack of a clear-cut separation between evil and good,
villains and angels. In this first stage of the novel I was not quite sure
which character to root for: Sam is an angel, but he kills with a touch and
snarls like a devil; Seline is as beautiful as an angel and more innocent than
a demon lover is supposed to be, but she’s on a mission to ”kill” a fallen
angel with her seductive succubus powers. Rogziel, high rank in the hierarchy of
Punishment angels, turns out to be more wicked than the Fallen angels he’s
hunting down. And it all happens in New Orleans, one of the most haunted places
on earth, a city charged with a dark and wild energy.

I was able to make sense of it
alland understand the dynamics that propel
demons and angels between realms only when
the main characters, urged by their deepest and truest emotions, took a clear
stand. In Cynthia Eden’s novel, angels can be more lethal than the devil
himself and can cause a blood-bath of epic proportions, emotions run deep,
kisses can kill, sensuality is scorching
hot. The book literally bleeds with action and sexuality from cover to cover.
And still, the emotional connection in our lead couple grows to a level that gives
a new meaning to the word lust. You may find Angel Betrayed’s world-building to
be an imaginative challenge to your suspension of disbelief with all these
angels, demons, vampires, magic spells and hellhounds, but the emotions and the
feelings that motivate the actions, the struggles, the antagonism among otherworldly
creatures are the same basic and
powerful emotional forces that characterize our kind: pride, arrogance, love, hate,
the rivalry between brothers, the
betrayal of a friend, the sense of dislocation experienced when you move into
a world you don’t belong to, the indissoluble bond and trust issues between
lovers.

What charges this fast-paced,
action-packed paranormal novel with a
heavy dose of romance and sensuality is the fact that the bond between the main
characters goes well beyond Seline’s succubus power of absorbing the vital
energy generated by her lover: that bond is much deeper than Sam’s addiction to Seline’s sensual lure.

The author introduced also a very
interesting cast of secondary characters and I certainly look forward to the
next installment in The Fallen series to see how their sub-plots will unfold.

GIVEAWAY!

The publisher would like to offer
a copy of ANGEL OF DARKNESS ( #1 in The Fallen series ) to a lucky
commenter.Stop by the blog, drop a comment
about this review or any of Cynthia Eden’s books and you will have the chance
to win. The contest is open only to US and Canada residents.

Blurb

"As an angel of death,
Keenan’s job is to collect the souls on his list. He’s carried out his
duty for two thousand years and never faltered once. Until he meets
Nicole St. James. When the moment of death comes, Keenan hesitates, and
instead of taking Nicole, Keenan touches the vampire who’s attacking
her.

Cast out of heaven for disobedience, Keenan plummets to
earth. Six months later, he finally manages to track Nicole to a bar in
Mexico. He’s stunned to discover that the woman he remembers has
undergone a dramatic change—she’s become a vampire. And when he realizes
that she’s the target of all manner of enemies—other vampires, demons,
even shifters—he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, even if all
hell breaks loose…"

* The publisher kindly provided a
copy of Angel Betrayed in exchange for a honest review.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Angels (otherworldly beings placed on Earth by The Order to guard and
preserve the humankind) and Mages (soulless creatures endowed with magical
powers) are arch enemies. The Angels began
hunting down the Mages when they
realized that some of the Mage Houses were feeding on angels to enhance their
powers and were planning to take over the world with the aid of soul-eater monsters called Wraiths. The Brands
and the Greys are mage families . The arranged marriage between the fifteen
years old Kaye Brand and the much older Ferro Grey will seal the alliance
between these two families during a time of internal struggles between Houses. When Kaye finds out that an angel, tortured
and held captive in the cellar of her house, is being offered by her father to
her soon-to-be husband as a wedding gift
, she braves up and refuses to marry Ferro. Infuriated by her rejection, the
Greys unleash a wraith against her: Kaye will defend herself from the vicious
attack using her Fire Shadow , the ability to create and manipulate fire. With
the aid of the Angels she will also manage to survive the fire that, fatefully
caused by her pyrokinetic power, destroys her family and her home.

Ten years later, Kaye is an independent beautiful woman with
few scars left on her face as a reminder of that horrible night. She sustains
herself selling her ability to call fire and
see the future in the flames. Alarmed by the escalating wraith attacks
against humans, the same angel who rescued her (Jack Bastian) contacts her with
a proposal: counting on her desire of revenge and mercenary spirit, the Order
would infiltrate Kaye among her kind in order to expose the Mages’s schemes and
put an end to their ambitions.

Fire Kissed, installment #4 in
the Shadow series, is a compelling, tightly-plotted urban fantasy with significant references to
the folkloristic mythology. With its intensity and rich content, it completely engaged
me, from the prologue through each and
every breath-taking, action packed chapter. But it also left me initially overwhelmed
and blindsided because of my limited knowledge of Mages Council vs. Angels
Order, Shadow magic/Twilight set up and world building. Fire Kissed can be enjoyed as a stand-alone, but I would highly
recommend to do some introductory reading: Erin Kellison’s previous books in
the Shadow series will certainly help you understand the highly imaginative
storyline and some of the secondary characters’s backstories.

I found Kaye’s character
particularly likable despite the apparent ruthlessness and gritty personality. I
am normally not a huge fan of over-confident,
spunky heroines with a snappy tongue and a know-it-all attitude, but her traumatic past and her background of loss
and grief made her more vulnerable than she would ever admit to herself and for
this reason more endearing and interesting. Left alone to fend for herself since
she was a teen, she is a resourceful survivor, constantly on her guard, but her
independent lifestyle comes with a price. She’s emotionally drained and
physically exhausted: she desperately needs to lean on a strong and protective
shoulder, she needs a guardian angel, and love. I admire this complex heroine, the
way she faces dangers and personal demons head-on, taking huge risks despite
the fear that shakes her physically and emotionally. Her methods and the
compromises she is willing to make may be questionable, but her motivations are
absolutely honorable. Jack Bastian
believes her to be simply a spoiled, unreliable woman, mercenary enough to
betray her own kind for the right sum of money. Like Jack, some readers may
find it difficult to like this character right away and won’t initially understand how lonely,
vulnerable, generous and protective she really is underneath her reckless
appearance. Her behavior poses a challenge even to a romantic involvement with
Jack. Neither it seems to me that the author wants to use their love story as main
focus of the narration, like it would happen in a conventional paranormal
romance novel. In the first half of the book, the chemistry between Kaye and
Jack is barely discernible, but I don’t see that as a flaw in the narration,
despite my personal taste for a heavier dose of romance. The author focuses
instead on providing a solid ground for the escalation of events that will lead
the readers through unpredictable
twist-and-turns and amazing revelations.

Halfway into the book I finally began to feel absolutely comfortable
with the storyline and the world structure: the main characters are fully
nuanced, the dynamics between them are more clear and my interest grows when the
romantic interest and emotional connection between Jack and Kaye (lacking in the first
part of the novel) grows too, initially as a protective instinct, regret for
involving her in a dangerous mission, finally as mutual attraction and palpable
sexual tension. When Jack and Kaye finally let their guards down, I felt like the
author was suddenly shifting gear and increasing speed from zero to one hundred
miles per hour without wasting ink on building romantic tension: no matter how
abruptly the emotional pace changes, it is quite gratifying all the same. This
is also the point in the narration where the charming and ambiguous character
of Ferro Grey steps up to the plate,
shaking things up (literally and figuratively) with his evil ambitions and love interest for Kaye.

I found this novel riveting, full
of content, highly imaginative, well-plotted, with a good characterization, and
a wealth of interesting secondary cast.
I really appreciate Erin Kellison’s ability to make Kaye shine through her
flaws as a unique, trustworthy, selfless
heroine, just like the fire element that she controls, beautiful and dangerous
at the same time. Hard to put down , Fire Kissed kept me on the edge of my seat
till the last page. Because of the heroine's spunky personality and visual impact of the narration, it would work beautifully as an illustrated graphic novel.

I just turned the last page of
this historical romance novel wondering why it took me so long to pick up a
bookfrom the titles list of this gifted
author : many thanks to Goodreads First Reads for providing me with afree copy in exchange for an honest review.

My love affair with romantic
fiction started with historical romance
novels and what mostly drew me towards this genre is the waythe characters’ quest for love unfolds on
different moral grounds, facing different challenges and following different
rituals.The beauty of some HRN is that their
storylines center substantially around a love relationship , but provide at the
same time a clever portrait of the historical backdrop against which the
matters of the heart evolve. In Wicked Intentions, a Georgian Era HRN (1751),
the colorful and detailedcharacterization
of lead couple, support cast, and their environment, appealed to my taste for
historical accuracy. It’s that age of elegancewhen men used to wear white wigs and tricorne hats, when good society women used to sport magnificent
and elaborated gowns with audacious décolleté. It’s also the time when the
darkest poverty cast long shadows on St.
Giles, the most infamous London district, that underworld of souls doomed to
move among slums, dreary orphanages, overcrowded and crumbling buildings, bawdy
houses, dirty alleys, and squalid places where the unhealthy addiction to gin
could be appeased.

Prim widow Temperance Dews runs
an orphans house with her brother in St. Giles. Whentheir lack of funds threatens to put an end
to their charitable institution, she strikes a deal with rakish and ill-reputed
Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire: he will introduce her to London good society , help
herfind a sponsor for her foundling
home,and in return she will guide him through the squalid alleys of St. Giles in
order to hunt down the murderer of his latest mistress. Drawn to each other
byan unsuspected affinity, their
initial bargain turns into a much deeper and complex bond, exposing them to mortal
dangers and elusive enemies.

The most interesting aspect of
this dark tale is that both Temperance and Lazarus are flawed characters. He is
notorious for his unusual sexual proclivities and believes himself to be "emotionally numb". A traumatic childhood experience and a fundamental lack of
warmth and affection within his own family triggered also an extreme revulsion
for intimacy and physical touch, at least until he meets Temperance and falls
for her. Clad in an armor of propriety and moral obligation to the cause of the
orphans, she hides a sensual and passionate nature that led her to a sinful act
in the past, a sin she is trying to atone for, denying herself any chance of
emotional attachment either to a man or to her own charges at the foundling
home. Caire’s blunt sensuality stirs Temperance’s curiosity and their mutual
attraction will guide them on a path of exploration of their vulnerable and
true natures. At the end of their journey Lazarus and Temperance will both find
self-forgiveness and mutual healing, finding
in each other their perfect match, like two halves of a whole.

In this highly gratifying tale
the author blended the scorching romance with an intriguing murder mystery element,
advancing the narration on multiple levels, the central theme of Lazarus and
Temperance’s redemption, and three
subplots that set the scene forthe
Maiden Lane sequels. The combination of that particular historical setting,
flawed and complex characters, fluid narration, suspenseful plot and
interesting subplots really worked out well for me. Two thumbs up!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Published
April 24th 2012
by Random House Publishing Group Genre: paranormal romance novelRating: 5 stars

From the dust cover:

“Free him from his ice-borne
hell . . .

Stolen from his beloved home in the Highlands of Scotland, imprisoned in the
Unseelie king’s dark, frosty kingdom, Aedan MacKinnon endured centuries of
torture before becoming the icy, emotionless Vengeance, the dark king’s
dispatcher of death and destruction in the mortal realm.

And in his century you both may dwell . . .

Aspiring romance novelist Jane Sillee has always believed that she was born in
the wrong century, but she’s managed to make a decent enough life for
herself—if only she could stop having those recurring dreams about a man too
perfect to exist.

In the Dreaming you have loved him . . .

Haunted every night of her life by a devastatingly sexy Highlander who comes to
her while she sleeps, Jane tries to write him out of her head and heart. As a
child he protected her, as a woman he loves her.

Now in the Waking you must save him . . .

When an ancient tapestry bearing the likeness of her beloved Highlander arrives
on her doorstep, Jane is whisked back in time to fifteenth-century Scotland, to
the castle of Dun Haakon on the isle of Skye, where she is given one chance to
save her dream lover . . . or lose him forever to the Unseelie king.

Caught in a deadly game between the light and dark courts of the Fae, Jane must
find a way through the ice to the heart of her Highander. But will the love of
one mortal woman be enough to defeat such ancient and ruthless immortal enemies?”

Review:

I honestly cannot imagine the
world of paranormal romance novels without Karen Marie Moning, because she’s
simply one of the most distinguished narratorial voices of this genre, and her
tales are among the most gratifying I have ever read. Just look at the
fantastic job she’s doingwith the marvelous adaptation of FEVER MOON into a
full-color graphic novel!

What I am reviewing today is a
novella (installment # 8 in the
Highlander series) that was originally published as part of the Tapestry Anthologyin 2002, and has been recently released in a
new edition that includes some exclusive bonus material. This is not one of the
most popular or most representative titles of this #1 New York Times
best-selling and RWA award winning author, but it could be a great place to
start for readers at their first “Karen
Marie Moning experience”. The shorter format (enjoyable in a matter of few hours) is an enticing
invitation to discover and appreciate the trademark qualities of her work. I
will say more: this novella may be less acclaimed than the most popular
SHADOWFEVER or THE DARK HIGHLANDER,but
it’s to be appreciated because it works as a perfect and in some ways illuminating
interlude between the more complex worlds of Moning’s FEVER and HIGHLAND lenghty
series.

Few authors have the ability to
deliver a solid tale within the limited space of a novella, without falling
short of intensity and emotional impact,
or without rushing the narration through a poor world and character building.
In INTO THE DREAMING not only this master story-teller avoided this trap, she
also succeeded in embellishing the canvas of extensively exploited tropes such
as time travel and magicwith
her signature touches of riveting adventure, scorching sensuality, larger than
life heroes, and that delicious mix of fluid narration, humor and romance that
makes of this novella a perfectly delightful read. A guilty pleasure you definitely want
to indulge in.

About Me

Mother of two amazing kids, Miss A™ entertainment columnist, avid reader bordering book-fetishism. Books are my childhood friends, my stress-relief therapy, my wings to fly to faraway lands and distant times, my source of knowledge and inspiration. I simply adore them and consume them aplenty. My "book love affair" began in my early teens with the Bronte sisters, Dickens, Austen, Poe, Conrad, and James. My taste in reading was shaped by those masters and still today, when I read fiction, I appreciate the dark tones, the Gothic touches, and the psychological insight typical of those classics.